The Senior National Championships - 2011

CD's Report
The 'senior' British Nationals has been held at Sywell for about as long as I can remember, but I can't recall a previous occasion when the unlimited brigade couldn't muster at least a trio of firmly committed aspirants; the upside of this situation of course was that the advanced pilots would enjoy a whole 3½ days to sort out who should be 'the boss' this year. There's always a silver lining somewhere ...

This being 2011 just 16 advanced hopefuls were entered for the event, but then: an insecure cowling departed Clive Butler's newly acquired EA230, Ed Cyster's biz claimed his unwavering attention and Michael Pickin thought he might not have prepared sufficiently, leaving just a Baker's Dozen to do the work. We usually try to import an experienced CIVA judge from forrin parts to liven up these affairs, this year Bernard Courtois providing a stern French viewpoint from which he distributed PZ's rather more freely (courteously?) than expected; the unlucky recipients however did seek - and mostly take! - his good advice and subtly re-sharpened their stick-and-rudder techniques, with benefits for all to see.

From the outset Thursday looked likely to be a dubious weather-bound day, those arriving providing various opinions about the cloud-base that wasn't enough to make a start on the "Q". By early afternoon however it was just about there, our chairman kicking proceedings into life with a thoroughly workmanlike 72-and-a-bit percent for the rest to chase. John Askew's raucous CAP-232 made the best job of this, closely chased by David Thomson's Laser and the rest. Master Jenkins didn't like the cloud-base and anyway it started to rain ... then on his re-start a wandering twin claimed even further attention. In the end all was done by 1740, so we could form an orderly huddle to invent the required twenty figures for our two Free Unknown sequences. These interludes always seem to provide ample opportunity for pilots to show that they appear not to know quite enough about the rules that govern this process, but after not too much squabbling the figures were all there on the wall - blue for the first sequence and red for the second - and the assembled company dispersed to see what sort of sequences could be made from them.

Then ... Friday was a complete washout, low cloud with occasional lashings of rain ensuring that enough spare pilot capacity could be found to deliver no less than five options for the first and three for the second Free Unknown. Those who authored the solutions mostly chose their own but there were some opt-outs for other designs, and soon enough Jen had the paperwork assembled for the next day. We gave up at about 1630 .... the forecast for Saturday and Sunday being rather more optimistic.

Saturday 9th was one of those days when it was perfect at about 0630 ... but the usual low-level Cu grew wings and filled the sky by 0815 and we just had to wait it out. Things improved such that we could finally spring into action a couple of hours later however, providing us with enough time to get the Free's finished before sneaking a late lunch and the first Free Unknown was all done by not long after 1600. Free's of course should all be excellently flown ... well, most were but for at least three the supply of brain farts seemed unstoppable. After the Free programme Alan Cassidy and Six Bravo Mike was well in charge, still chased by 'Skew and DT with the Jenkins Edge close behind. The more testing Free Unknown however had Uncle deliver an unusual CHZ in the form of a pulled instead of pushed humpty, cleaving his lead down to 1.07% - surely a great target? It would be all down to Free Unknown #2 then, and there was an overnight pause to chew the fingernails through ...

The last day was just one of those "bottle this one and bring it out when needed" days - a high overcast, not a hint of cloud anywhere near the box, and hardly any wind. Game on! But of course experience told, and when the chairman strutted his stuff the others had to try even harder ... the pressure for some being just a tad too much, or maybe it was merely finals-day nerves; whatever, The Boss got his lead back and the rest squabbled over who would be 'first loser' - David Jenkins eventually taking the silver medal ahead of Gary Ferriman's bronze.

And so to the Masters affair. After the somewhat fractious rules-ironing session at Compton Abbas, Masters CJ Ian Scott laid down the law, and very pleasing the flying was too - last to fly Ron Allan's Pitts S-2B providing the most laudable solution and hence taking the gold medal by a good margin from Phil's green One Design machine and the venerable Cassidy Pitts (a venerable Pitts that is ... of course!).

I hope that we continue to enjoy Sywell for a long time - it's a great aerodrome now with excellent facilities, although next year we'll try to avoid the Silverstone Grand Prix weekend. A thousand thanks to the two CJ's, the judges and their various assistants, to Jen for reams of paperwork and twinkling marks entries, and of course to ATC chief Jeff and all the other Sywell staff that make this such an enjoyable event. See you next week at Fenland?

Nick Buckenham
Contest Director